A few days ago, I came across this delightful track on the sarod. The artist is Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and let me tell you that he is amazing at what he does! First off, the sarod is a stringed instrument, with 5 or 6 main strings and about 9 sympathetic strings. The sympathetic strings are merely resonators that vibrate along with the main strings and add some depth and texture to the sound that is produced by the instrument. Most importantly, the sarod is a fretless instrument, and that gives the artist tremendous control over the sound that is produced. Compared to the sitar, it produces a duller, heavier sound - "sadder", if I can call it that, though it can be equally energetic in the right hands. And believe me, he's got the right hands. Personally I find his music very easy to listen to - a very prominent melody always and I find his progression very compelling, very relaxing, though it does have its intense moments. So here we go, this is Ustad Amjad Ali Khan on the sarod playing Raag Hemanti. The song is in rupaktaal, which means it is in 7 beats counted 1-2-3-1-2-1-2.
Our next artist is the perhaps the most famous tabla player India has ever produced - Ustad Zakir Hussain. I'm going to skip the usual introduction, and let his music do the talking. Besides you'll find more information on Google than I could ever hope to give you. Our second track for the day is a song titled, "Sarod", of his album Instrumental Indian. Our third and final track is going to last a while, the song is called Teentaal, meaning a cycle in 16 beats from his album Sangeet Sartaj Volume 2.
Avinash Sastry
Gharana Music
WREK Atlanta, 91.1 FM
Mondays, 8-9 p.m.
www.wrek.org
(+1) 404-894-2468
Email: gharanamusicatlanta@gmail.com
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